1. I am supposed to blog about my China trip but unfortunately, and I don't understand why, I could not upload my photos onto both Slide and Photobucket! Wonder what's wrong! Well, I guess I would have to do random notes today.

2. Christmas is coming soon! Yay! I love the Christmas season with the Christmas trees and decorations and Christmas music in the air!

That reminds me - I read through my letter to dear Santa last year and I just realised Santa did not grant me any of my wishes. None at all! He should have at least granted me wish No. 9! That's all I need!

And I put in so much effort to play him White Christmas on my piano!! Bah! No more letter to Santa this year! : (

By the way, did you know that if you rearrange the letters in Santa, he becomes Satan? (trembles...)

3. Oh! What a coincidence! I just overheard Christina Aguilera sings Genie In A Bottle on the radio! Hmm, maybe I should ask the Genie to grant me my wishes instead!

Let me ask you a question. If you stumble onto Aladdin's lamp, and you rub it and out comes a Genie but this Genie is not so generous as he offers to grant you only 1 wish, what is that ONE thing that you will ask for?

4. Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to my weekend holiday at Tasik Kenyir! Woohoo! Some of you have asked who is that blogger friend I am going with. Well, I am afraid I can't tell because he requested that I keep his identity a secret! And I thought I can take photos of him! What a shame!

But suffice to say, he's a blogger most of you should know or at least heard of. Will I be able to keep it a secret? Oh, I don't know - it's hard, it's hard.

Well, sorry I won't be able to drop by your blogs these few days, but I will do my best to catch up with you all when I return. If possible, I will try to tweet a little so come follow me onTwitter!

It allows you to actually look into a person's mind and find out if he's hiding anything. It's called 'similar scenario' technique.

What you need to do is to ask a question that does not accuse the person of anything but rather alludes to it. Then simply observe his response.

Let us take the case of a woman who suspects her husband of having an affair with his secretary. Instead of confronting her husband, she plays it cool and casually asks him over dinner "Gee, you know what, honey? My boss Jim, I think he may be having an affair with his secretary."

Then she just need to observe her husband's response.

If he asks questions and becomes interested, she can be reasonably sure he's not doing the same thing.

But if he becomes uncomfortable and looks away and tries to change the subject, then he's likely to be engaged in a similar behaviour. She will notice his immediate shift in demeanor and attitude.

Now why is this technique so useful and why we should not confront a person directly? Typically, when we confront a person, it would put him on the defensive. If it turns out that we're wrong, there's a good chance we may appear paranoid or jealous and the relationship suffers.

With this technique, we are able to bring up a particular subject and find out if he's comfortable or concerned with the topic, all without making a single accusation!

By the way, this technique does not work for women only. If you are a man and you suspect your wife is having an affair with the gardener (just an idea I plucked from Desperate Housewives, haha!) you too can use this technique to find the truth.

A scene from Desperate Housewives

In fact, this technique can be used for more than just finding out if your partner is having an affair. It has a myriad of other uses and is especially useful if you are tired of being deceived or taken advantage of.

Let's take another example. You suspect a salesperson in your office is stealing the office supplies. If you confront her and say "Have you been stealing from the company?" that would achieve nothing.

Reason being if she didn't do it, she would say no. And if she's guilty, she would still say no.

The better way is to say "I'm wondering if you could help me with something. It had come to my attention that someone in the sales department has been taking home office supplies for personal use. Any idea on how we can put a stop to this?"

If she did not do it, she would be eager to offer her suggestions.

But if she is guilty, she will appear uncomfortable and may probably assure you that she would never do anything like that. Now there's no reason for her to bring herself into the picture, unless of course, she's guilty.

I don't, since I have not traveled widely enough to all countries in the world. But one thing is for sure, it's not us Malaysians!

A lot of foreign tourists said we Malaysians are warm and friendly, but if you have ever been to Thailand, you will know we are no where near their level.

I am not writing this post to criticize Malaysia or to praise Thailand, but just to share what I think. Strictly my own opinion and you are welcome to disagree with me!

And so here are 5 amazing things I like about Thailand based on my personal observation.

1. Did you know that traffic jam is legendary in Bangkok? I went there a couple of years back and the roads were just clogged with vehicles! And their 'tuk tuk' drivers were simply notorious for their reckless driving!

2. Did you notice that most Thai people are slim? I hardly see any fat or obese people in Thailand! Now why is that? I guess it's their fresh and healthy food, devoid of too much oil and fats! Also, I think they walk a lot!

Now I have nothing against fat people, but I just marvel at how the Thai people manage to stay slim! I guess they are active people unlike most Malaysians who eat 24 hours a day and do not exercise!

3. Do you think the Thai language is one of the most gentle and polite languages in the world? I really think so! Maybe that's why when the Thai people talk, they seem to appear so much more polite than Malaysians!

But I don't think it's in the language alone. I am pretty sure the people there are polite and caring. And most importantly, they give the best service! Is it any wonder that Thai's tourism industry is booming like nobody's business?

4. Did you know the living condition in Thailand is worse than in Malaysia? And they are suffering from economic problems and political upheavals. Yet, the Thai people are simply nonchalant about all these. They seem to persevere and have the Mai Phen Rai attitude.

Mai Phen Rai is a well known Thai phrase for 'never mind', or 'no problem' or 'it doesn't matter'. And that's what I like about them! They take their problems in their stride. Life just goes on!

Now if only Malaysians have this Mai Phen Rai attitude and stop complaining when they are faced with minor obstacles and problems!

5. I notice Thailand is a very open country and they do not discriminate against people with different sexual orientation (read gay). Where else in an Asian country can you find go go girls and gay bars being openly promoted to lure in tourists?

I doubt Malaysia will ever be this open. Especially when the authorities here think being gay is tantamount to committing a sin that is worse than murder. I really think we should accept people as they are, be they straight or otherwise!

1. I don't normally blog on Sundays but today I just feel like blogging. Maybe it's the nice cool rainy weather. It seems to have an effect on me. A good one that is. And I'm going to say this for the umpteenth time - I LOVE the rain!!!

2. I had so much fun writing my Tribute to my blogger friends that I am definitely going to write a sequel to that very soon! But blogger TZ was not very happy with me for calling him a loony. I hope he's not taking it too seriously because I was just joking! Read his post and my response here.

3. I am finally on Twitter! Yup, I'm tweeting practically everyday and it is becoming somewhat addictive. I even update my Twitter on my mobile phone when I go out. Seriously, I must stop this unhealthy obsession! But if you like, do follow me on Twitter! : )

4. Yesterday, I talked to a very young friend of mine who had never been to Thailand before. He told me he wanted to see tigers! Haha! That reminded me of my hilarious conversation on tigers!

5. I am excited and looking forward to a short holiday trip with a fellow blogger next weekend. This trip will be a series of firsts for me. It will be my first time going there, my first time going on a trip with this blogger and also my first time flying Firefly! Well, there's always a first time for everything, and flying Firefly is no different. Haha!

A lot of people tell me that they will be happy when they earn their first million.

Some tell me they will be happy once they they lose weight and achieve that perfect figure!

Others tell me they will be happy once they are married and have children.

Yet others tell me they will only be happy when they are successful and famous!

I guess most people will only be happy when they reach their goals in life. So in other words, we are all always striving to reach that state of being happy.

Have you ever wondered why we work so hard? Well, for the majority of us, we work hard for the money.

But why do we need to have money? Besides being able to buy food, pay our house loans and other necessities in life, we can buy things we like. And why would we want those things so much? Probably because they help us accomplish certain things in life or we want to look cool.

But why do we want to accomplish those things? Why do we want to look cool? Keep questioning yourself and you'll find that the real reason is because that would make you happy. You see, it all boils down to this craving for that state of happiness.

Now don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong in pursuing our dreams and our goals.

But if it is really happiness that you are after, why go through all the troubles? Since happiness is just a state of your conscious mind, don't you think you can simply 'choose' to be happy?

As ridiculous as this may sound to you, don't you think that you can just sit back, do nothing and be happy?

Why go through all the hard work to reach your destination when you can actually arrive at your destination now?

Believe me, there are people who have already achieved this - they are the reclusive yogis, who choose to do nothing and be happy.

I guess it's not easy for us to do that because all our lives, we have been conditioned to work hard in order to achieve our dreams. And then and only then, would we be satisfied and be happy.

But here's the problem. That happiness will not last very long. For very soon, we will be craving for more, for that next step because as humans, we always want to progress.

And so, people will continue to strive for that elusive happiness all their lives, wondering why do they feel so empty after having achieved so many things in life. You see, searching for happiness outside of you is an illusion. Because happiness is found within.

You already have happiness inside you. Be happy NOW. No matter what circumstances in your life right now, you can choose to be happy. IT'S YOUR CHOICE.

Why not be happy even as you continue to strive for your goals and dreams? You don't need to be happy only AFTER you have achieved them. As they say, success is a journey not a destination.

I have a blogger friend named QC,Who always tease me 'bout my obsession with MC.He says he much prefers a singer called Britney,But I really think she's worse than Miley!

Don't worry QC - this is a joke and is meant to be funny,So please don't get all hot and angry,By the way, thanks for making me sign up for FB,It's quite fun and I'm enjoying it actually!

I have another blogger friend by the name of Pikey,I have not met him before so I wonder if he's geeky.Anyway Pikey, when can you join me for karaoke?I assure you that I am not pitchy!

Although I don't think I can sing like Daughtry,Or look as good as George Clooney,I do believe I'm better than P.Diddy,But don't blame me if you find that I sound like a banshee!

And then there is my travel partner Jam who is oh, so environmental friendly,I think he's too serious that it's starting to get freaky,But asking me to switch off my aircon on a hot day is just crazy!Save the world? - well, I guess I'm simply not ready!

And then there's Mei Teng who is obsessed with photography,Just like I'm obsessed with Mariah Carey,But her photos are really good, don't you all agree?If I'm half as good as her, I'll die happy!

I'm sure you all know this blogger by the name of TZ,He's such a gym addict he goes Fitness First daily!He's also into travel, Starbucks and photography,I sometimes wonder where he gets all his money!

There are times when I think TZ is a loony,Coz he goes to gym and work out excessively,If you don't already know, he's pro-Starbucks and anti-OldTown White Coffee,But guess what, recently he dumped Starbucks for Bad Ass Coffee!

I have a blogger friend from USA called Heidi,Who looks really good in her swimsuit bikini!She dishes out health advice like it's so easy,Believe it or not, reading her blog makes me feel oh, so healthy!

I got to know a blogger by the name of Ayie,She tells me it's her nickname though it doesn't matter really,She's currently in the middle of her pregnancy,Good luck and thanks Ayie, for adding me on FB!

You all know SK whom I think is a little chubby,I know I shouldn't say that so OK, I'm sorry!He just went for a week or two binging at McD,Now he's thinking of ways to trim his big, fat belly!

He's a fan of Doraemon, now don't you think he's silly?OK SK, please don't be angry with me!I'm just joking and trying to be funny,Here's my advice to trim that belly - eat nothing but zucchini!

I love those random notes by Shingo T,So much so that I even decide to copy,Great! Now I can post random notes on my blog when I'm busy,Or on those days when I'm just too lazy!

Recently, I met up with Witch at Mid Valley,It's my first time meeting her so I was full of anxiety,She's tall and pretty but she's no Angelina Jolie or Zhang Ziyi,And guess what, we both own a Panasonic Lumix LX3!

We had a great meal at Chili's though I was not really hungry,So probably I ended up being very chatty,Nice meeting up with Witch as she's such a foodie,Perhaps we shall meet up next time for a meal of pan mee?

I guess all of you know that yellow man who always follow you and me?You know who I am talking about right, even if you don't subscribe to DIGI,He reminds me of a blogger who works in that company,Yes, that's Vialentino - no prizes for guessing correctly!

Some bloggers are just so damn funny,Like Kenwooi who always make my day sunny!Although sometimes I prefer my day to be cloudy,And occasionally even rainy!

You see, the rain does not make me feel sad or lousy,But it does make me feel more sleepy,However, reading Kenwooi's blog would make me go all perky,Don't you all think he's such a Kenny Sia wannabee?

Faisal seems to think that the sound of rain is sexy,Gosh! I don't seem to get that - do you think he's being cheeky?On second thoughts, I think he's probably horny!Tell me what you all think, really!

Whether it's rainy, cloudy or sunny,It's always much better than hazy.Cos when the haze from our neighbour gets to me,And believe me this happens almost yearly,I feel like throwing myself into the deep blue sea!

I guess this post is getting too long already,So I think it's time to stop being funny.Besides, I don't know why Mozilla keeps crashing on me,Maybe I should just switch over to IE.

Oh, by the way, I have yet to watch 2012 the movie,Maybe I should watch it tomorrow at GSC,Or should I instead watch it at TGV?Some say it's a nice movie I just hope it's not too corny,Especially when it's not endorsed by Oprah Winfrey!

Now if some of you think I've forgotten about you - don't be silly!It's impossible to mention everyone, don't you agree?Cos that would stretch this post so long it would reach all the way to Italy!Just remember this is a Tribute to all my blogger friends, so ALL OF YOU are in my memory,Who knows, I might just do Part 2 if I am free!

With that, I would like to take this opportunity,To thank you all for visiting and supporting me!Now don't make my eyes go all teary,Bye bye and see you soon, from Foongpc.

November 14 was World Diabetes Day and I would like to take this opportunity to counter some myths on diabetes.

World Diabetes Day Logo

Here are 3 common myths regarding diabetes.

1. Diabetes is caused by high consumption of sugar.

This is only partly true. There are people who do not consume much sugar yet they get diabetes. Besides, all food once digested turn into sugar in your body. It's not just sugar that you must control, but the amount of food and the portion that you must be aware of.

To be on the safe side, avoid all refined sugar and processed food. Add to that you must also practise a healthy lifestyle like exercise on a regular basis, sleep early and manage stress.

This is not an advice for diabetics only. It holds true for non diabetics as well that is, if you want to avoid becoming part of the statistics.

2. Diabetes is not a very serious disease as it can be controlled by medication and insulin.

This is a very dangerous myth because I notice a lot of diabetics still eat like they normally do thinking the insulin and medication is enough to help them control their blood sugar. Take note that diabetes is an incurable disease. Once you have it, you have it for life.

With diabetes, you will eventually suffer from stroke, heart disease, kidney problems, and eye problems. It's what you must do NOW to slow down the effects so that you can delay these problems from happening too soon.

To do this, you would have to change your lifestyle. Eat low GI (glycemic index) food, control your portion, do exercise and manage your stress well. In this way, the medication and insulin you take in do not have to work that extra hard to control your blood sugar.

3. Diabetes can be spread or inherited.

Diabetes definitely cannot be spread from one person to the other like the common flu. But it can be inherited. However, not everyone who gets diabetes inherits it.

You are considered at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes if any of your first-degree relatives have diabetes. So if you are one of the unfortunate ones, all the more you must take really good care of your health. Do not wait - start the healthy lifestyle right now!

I remember I have blogged a little about diabetes before I left for my China trip. To refresh your memory, read it here. I had put up a list of popular food and asked you, my readers to guess the amount of sugar in each of them.

How much sugar are you eating daily? According to American Heart Association, women should not take in more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day, whereas men should limit to 9 teaspoons a day. (This however do not apply to natural sugar found in fruits). Read the report here.

Based on their recommendation, it looks like by eating that McDonalds sundae ice cream, you would have exceeded your daily limit!

Just when you thought it's over, here we go again with another part of Lost In Xingping! But rest assured, this is the final part and I promise not to mention one more word about Xingping after this post!

Unless I want to. Haha!

Anyway, I was no longer lost so the title of this post may be a bit misleading. Well, whatever.

The day after my adventure in the mountain forest of Xingping, we went to take some photos of the Xingping Port which was just 50 metres from the hostel we stayed.

By the way, Jam had almost recovered from his diarrhea after he went to a Chinese physician and ate some Chinese medicines the day before. So he was able to walk around without having to camp near the toilet. Haha!

Look! So many boats! Must be a busy port!

Oh! There's a weir dam here too.

Remember where I mentioned about weir dams? Haha, if you can't remember, refresh your memory here.

I think it would be quite nice to walk across the weir dam to the other side!

Nice reflection on the water.

See the women washing clothes by the river? They were from the Water Village.

Here's the entrance to Xingping Water Village.

There's a water wheel here.

This is the bridge leading to the village.

I didn't really visit the Water Village, just strolled around that place and came back out again.

We had to check out of the hostel by noon and head back to Yangshuo. Before that, we went to the roof top of the hostel and took some photos there.

But I did not come up here at night. If you remember, after that adventure in the mountain forest, I decided to retire early.

Anyway, there's hardly any night life in Xingping. It's a small town and the locals there usually go to bed by 9pm. Not my kind of life for sure, since I am a night owl, but it's good to experience it once in a while.

I saw two letterboxes at the roof top.

Doesn't it look cute?

Well, that's about it. My adventure in Xingping had come to an end. It's time to return to Yangshuo. Somehow, I felt a bit sad leaving Xingping. Was it because I did not get to visit the fishing village? Or was it because of the extremely good service I received from this hostel?

As I went up the bus heading for Yangshuo, I felt a little nauseous. My stomach was not feeling too good. I kept this to myself and did not tell Jam and his friend. I hoped that I was not going to come down with food poisoning!

I wonder why is OldTown so popular. For one, I think their food is nothing to shout about. You can actually get similar food at better quality at your normal coffee shops. And for that kind of food quality, OldTown are charging at really high prices!

Now why would anyone want to eat there? Maybe for the ambience? Or maybe for the free wifi?

As for drinks, they have lots of nice delicious variety to choose from! I really like their red bean cendol drink, and their soya cendol with gula melaka!

As for desserts, they have ABC special with durian! Yummy! And even soya milk tang yuen!

Pappa ABC Special with ice cream

Now I am not saying the food quality at PappaRich is excellent. In fact, some normal kopitiam shops sell better quality food at cheaper prices! However, the food sold in PappaRich are costlier than OldTown, although the portion of food served in PappaRich is larger.

I am just saying that PappaRich has so many more varieties of food that you can have more choices.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am fed up with OldTown. Bored, even. I actually can't stand their food! They should seriously improve on their menu or people will most likely flock over to PappaRich!

Well, that's just my opinion. What about you? Do you prefer OldTown or PappaRich?